Saturday, April 28, 2007

Chelsea and Darin were married mid day on Friday at the Mesa Temple. It was a beautiful (if slightly warmish) day- perfect for a wedding. Their family threw a beautiful and intimate reception that evening. The bride and groom played/sang a beautiful song together and then were whisked away in a horse drawn carriage. Beautiful.

(Note: Family members- if I did not get your email to send you a link to the preview gallery, please email or call me using the contact page- I will gladly send you a link to the full preview (100+ images to start you off). )

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to photograph my first (of hopefully many) LDS temple weddings this weekend. I have to say right off the bat that I much prefer LDS weddings to any other type I have worked on to date.

I would like to get a few more under my belt because I think that maybe I would like to specialize in them. Any couples want to volunteer?

I think the reason I like it so much is because the Mesa Temple campus is gorgeous and its really fun to see all of the excitement when the couple comes out! Its great to see families with such a close bond and there is something very heartfelt and sacred about this kind of a religious union. In addition to this fact, Temple weddings have always been kind of special to me because Kirk's side of the family is Mormon.

In addition to the beauty of it all and the family ties- I seet something I found slightly odd. A lot of photographers offer temple packages...at rates as high and even higher than conventional weddings!!! I was shocked to see such highway robbery. After hearing my step brother and law and his wife paid nearly a thousand dollars for photographs they did not get for nearly half a year I was appalled! Even worse still, is that a lot of these couples are young, just getting on their feet- so asking them to spend so much for what amounts to just a couple of hours of photography certainly is not helping them. YES, great photographs of your wedding day are incredibly important, but you should not have to go into debt or eat ramen noodles for a month for them. I feel that as a photographic professional, I can offer great services for these couples at prices they can handle.

So, a great day, a WONDERFUL couple, and some great ideas for affordable temple packages.

All in all a great wedding! We had a great time...engagement photos to the end of the reception Chelsea and Darin were a blast!